Padma Shri winner and eminent Punjabi author Dalip Kaur Tiwana on Tuesday joined the long list of writers protesting “recurrent atrocities” on Muslims in the country and killing of scholars and rationalists by announcing her decision to return her coveted medal even as three more litterateurs came forward to relinquish their Sahitya Akademi award over the issue.
Meanwhile, facing heat over his reported remarks that writers returning their Akademi awards “should stop writing”, Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma on Tuesday sought to clarify that he could not stop anybody from airing one’s views, though he insisted that returning awards was a “wrong” move. “I did not say that they should stop writing. How can I stop anybody from expressing his viewsIJ We are with them in condemning the murders — be it of writers like MM Kalburgi or the killing at Dadri. Nobody is saying that anyone’s murder is justified. This is a law and order problem.
“We are with them in condemning it. Action should be taken against whoever is guilty,” said the Minister even as he refused to respond to the criticisms of Booker Prize winning author Salman Rushdie, who extended his support to the writers.
“Well I think he (Rushdie) has addressed it to the Government and it will react at the right time. let the Government or our spokesperson give their comments on this... It is a democratic country. Rushdie has given his support to a group of people. let him give. Our Ministry has nothing to make comment on it,” he said. Minister’s statement has come amid spree of resignation by the writers and now Padma Shri Awardee Tiwana following killing of scholar Karburgi and rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare.
In a letter to the Centre, Tiwana said, “In this land of Gautama Buddha and Guru Nanak Dev, the atrocities committed on the Sikhs in 1984 and on the Muslims recurrently because of communalism are an utter disgrace to our State and society.
“And to kill those who stand for truth and justice put us to shame in the eyes of the world and God. In protest, therefore, I return the Padma Shri award”, said the author who received the honour in 2004.
While Kannada writer Prof Rahamat Tarikeri said he has returned his Sahitya Akademi award in protest against the killing of scholar MM Kalburgi and rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, Assam’s known thinker, litterateur and journalist Homen Borgohain announced that he would soon return the 1978 Akademi honoured to him.
Borgohain announced his decision through a regular column of a vernacular newspaper in Assam on Tuesday. “I have been disturbed since the Dadri killing and I was waiting for an opportunity to express this. However, I failed to decide on how to express my feelings. Now after at least ten Akademi awardees returned their honour, I felt, I too have found a way to express my feelings. So today I announce that I am returning the honour over the growing religious intolerances in the country,” he said.
Hindi translator Chaman lal, a retired JNU Professor, too returned his award and cash money of his 2002 translation prize to the Sahitya Akademi. Noting that the issue now went beyond the “Akademi’s insensitive behaviour”, he said “there is wider Government patronisation to Akademi’s such conduct”. At least 25 authors have so far decided to return their Akademi awards and five writers have stepped down from official positions of the literary body, which in turn has convened an emergency meeting on October 23 to discuss the developments.